A japanese recipe of vegetable soup. The cakes, known as mochi, are cute round buns made of soft and chewy rice. The rice is first steamed and then pounded and mashed. The resulting sticky rice mass is then formed into the final mochi shape and baked or boiled. Ozoni, which loosely means is a traditional Japanese soup made with miscellaneous ingredients such as vegetables, seafood, meats and rice cakes. Each ingredient added to the soup has a special meaning: Mochi represents longevity because of its stretchy texture.